Ward Erratic In Debut, But He Had His Moments

THE SPORTS COLUMN

TALLAHASSEE — In its Atlantic Coast Conference football inaugural Saturday night, Florida State unveiled a new scoreboard and a new quarterback. Both were erratic.

At various points during the game, The Largest Scoreboard In College Football became the Largest Non-Working Scoreboard, a massive expanse of embarrassing darkness illuminated only by the glow from the red faces of scoreboard company executives.

The board thus reflected the hit-and-miss debut of quarterback Charlie Ward, who had inspired the kind of preseason superlatives coach Bobby Bowden previously had reserved only for chocolate cake and Lykes hotdogs. ''By doing that, I may have put too much pressure on Charlie,'' Bowden said just before Ward went out and threw four interceptions and four touchdowns.

Although Ward's debut showed flashes of promise and plenty of excitement, Casey Weldon will not be forgotten for at least another week around Tallahassee. It was still good enough to safely dispatch lightly regarded Duke, 48-21, and serve notice to the rest of the ACC. If the Seminoles can cough and sputter to a 27-point victory in their new league, what will it be like when Ward, Scoreboard & Co. work out the kinks?

Two years ago, when Florida State was being considered for admission, Duke led the minority dissent. Ironic, then, that the Dookies would be served up as the first sacrifice?

Not at all, says Duke Athletic Director Tom Butters, who insists he asked to open the season each year against FSU. ''If we were going to have to play them,'' Butters explained just before kickoff, ''I wanted to play them as early each year as possible. My experience is against a good team like Florida State, your best chance is to catch them early.''

For a moment, it appeared Butters was on to something. After collecting the first of Ward's interceptions, Duke drove inside the Seminoles' 10, threatening to score first. The Blue Devils would have if receiver Brad Breedlove hadn't dropped a certain touchdown pass from Steve Prince. Two plays later, FSU safety Leon Fowler picked off a Prince gift and returned it 96 yards, putting the new kids on the ACC block on top to stay.

By then, the diverse effects of the two teams' noteworthy pep talks undoubtedly had worn off. The coaches' choice of orators posed an interesting contrast.

Duke's Barry Wilson used another football coach, Florida's Steve Spurrier, to inspire his troops. Appropos for playing a hoops power like Duke, Bowden used a basketball personality. On the eve of FSU's historic first ACC game, Bowden showed his squad a 30-minute, anti-drug, stay-in-school video featuring the frenetic histrionics of one Dick Vitale. When basketball's Big Yapper filmed the motivational aid, he couldn't have imagined it might be used one day to help beat Duke. Basketball coaches throughout the ACC will be ordering the Vitale tape first thing on Monday.

Spurrier had been dragged along to Tallahassee by wife Jerri to root for their son, Stevie, a reserve wide receiver for the Blue Devils. At midday Saturday, Wilson was asked by a busybody reporter if he planned to have the elder Spurrier, whom he succeeded two years ago, address his squad. ''I haven't given that any thought,'' Wilson said. But you could see the wheels starting to turn.

Hours later, he invited his old boss to help light a fire under the Duke underdogs. So Spurrier jogged into the bath house with the Blue Devils just before kickoff and told them just to ''go out and have fun.''

For a few minutes, they did, until Marvin Jones, FSU's linebacker/assassin, stopped all the laughter.

If Ward's performance was hit-and-miss, Marvin's was simply devastating. He broke up a pass on Duke's first play and tackled a Blue Devil for a loss on the second. He flattened Prince twice, once on a block when Prince was the only man who could stop Fowler's long return, then a few minutes later just as Prince was releasing a third-down incompletion. The latter hit resulted in poor Prince being helped to the bench where he sat passively with a bruised jaw, wondering if anyone wrote down the license plate number.

It was not immediately known if any linebacker had ever won the Butkus Award in the first 15 minutes of the season.